A carton former in which corrugated board sheets are processed into corrugated board boxes includes a flexo rotary die cutter with which sheets are stamped into a predetermined shape, a flexo folder gluer that is an apparatus that folds and applies glue to corrugated board sheets, and the like. The flexo folder gluer generally has a paper feeding unit that feeds corrugated board sheets, a printing unit that performs printing on the corrugated board sheets, a slotter creaser that rules lines on and cuts grooves in the corrugated board sheets to form joint flaps to form a box, a folding unit that folds the sheets along the lines to join the joint flaps, and a counter ejector that counts the sheets to make the predetermined number of sheets into a bundle.
The counter ejector generally has a hopper that receives folded boxes fed from the folding unit, a ledge that works when boxes accumulated in the hopper reaches the preset number to form a bundle (hereinafter referred to as a batch) and receives the boxes to be the next batch, and a press bar that applies pressure to the batch discharged from the hopper. The counter ejector counts the number of boxes from the folding unit, makes the predetermined number of boxes into a batch, and sends the batch out to a post process (e.g., a binding machine).
Recently, such a carton former is sometimes required to produce corrugated board boxes with the number of sheets per batch decreased and the number of batches increased, therefore, a shortened time required for a process per batch (hereinafter referred to as a cycle time) has been demanded.
Examples of the counter ejector include one described in Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 discloses a counter ejector including a blower blowing air to a batch above an elevator, and pressing the batch with the air pressure from the blower.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 2000-127262